


unexpectedly

by foundCarcosa



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-29
Updated: 2014-10-29
Packaged: 2018-02-23 03:24:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2532290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/foundCarcosa/pseuds/foundCarcosa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Things the merc-with-a-mouth said that Commander Shepard expected from him, and one thing she didn’t.</p>
            </blockquote>





	unexpectedly

"I’m not here to be your friend," he declares to the silent room, shrugging. London closes her eyes and wishes that everything about SR-2 would just go away, including this surly, sharp-tongued mercenary from Hell itself that the Illusive Man has cursed her with. "I’m here because I got offered a fat purse and a cushy position to play saviour to an ungrateful galaxy. Whether you admit it or not, that’s why you’re here, too. So don’t bore me with your speeches about goddamn _ethics_ and…” he waves a scarred, veined hand, “…whatever else makes your bed feel less cold at night. Say my name, and it better be because you want me to kill something, you got that?”

They got it. It suited Miranda just fine, Jack approved, Garrus had half a mind to pump him for war stories. Even Kelly left him alone, although she was tougher than she looked and did not scare easily at all. London commanded him because she had to, but she wished he’d get bored and leave. She was tired of looking over her shoulder on her own ship.

"Don’t like me, do you?" Zaeed Massani says in that lazy way of his, one day, the first time he’d acknowledged the obvious in a while.

"What are you doing in front of my quarters?" she asks stiffly in response.

"Hard to catch you up on deck. Got half a mind to think you’re avoiding me." He pushes off the wall, studying her, mismatched eyes unreadable. "You avoiding me? _Commander?”_

She doesn't care for his tone one bit, but she’d be damned if she would let him know. “We’ve nothing to say to each other, Massani. Go back downstairs.” Pushing past him to open her door feels… unexpectedly heady. As if she'd stumbled into a game she hadn’t realised she was playing until she was already in the position to lose.

"Maybe you’ve nothing to say to me, but I’m not done talking." He nudges the toe of his boot just far enough over the threshold that the door refuses to close, registering an obstruction.

"You overstep your—" London starts to snap, eyes narrowing, but he's talking again.

"I know damn well what I’m doing, Commander, that’s why I’m doing it," he interrupts her cleanly, his tone never changing. "I’m taking a risk. Because I’m goddamn intrigued."

Against her better judgement, she takes the bait. “Intrigued by what.”

"I mean, we've got... a biotic who’s clearly off her rocker. A former trussed-up security guard. A genetically-enhanced supermodel. _Archangel.”_ Zaeed ticks off her crew one-by-one on hands she’d spent too much time watching with an incorrigible intensity that annoyed her. “Let’s see, who am I forgetting… a master thief, that salarian that I find impossible to trust — he talks too goddamn _fast,_ even for a salarian —”

"What is your _point,_ Massani.”

"And it’s _me_ you don’t like. That’s my point. I haven’t argued with your orders since Zorya. I don’t pick fights on your ship — more than you can say for your pet biotic—”

"Jack is not anyone’s _pet,_ Zaeed! Christ, why are you so _nasty?”_ London shoots him the most contemptuous look she can manage through her disappointment. She’d hoped for a better conversation than this. She doesn’t know why she’d bothered, but she had.

"Because it’s been a long time since someone could make me feel sorry about it with one look. I get masochistic sometimes just like anybody. See you on deck." Zaeed flicks his fingers at his temple in a lazy salute, shifts his foot, and lets the door close between them.


End file.
